Legislative Advocacy

During the coming months, we ask that you lend us your support as we work with members of the Legislature and their staff to seek passage of legislation to address three issues of critical importance to all of us.

• Increased Access to College for Students with Disabilities (S.3436 and A.7330)
  
  Over 48 percent of New York State students with disabilities who complete high school are planning to go to college. When they enter postsecondary education, however, they enter a world without the safety net and support previously provided to them by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
  
  With no more than half of our colleges reporting an enrollment of more than 60 students with disabilities, it is apparent that students are selecting institutions where resources are available as opposed to where they may have academic interests.
  
  Support for students with disabilities cannot end at Grade 12. Students with disabilities need to be provided appropriate support to assist in their success in higher education. To make this happen, these students need your support of legislation that would provide $15 million in the first year and up to $30 million for the next four years to help colleges improve their ability to serve students with disabilities.
  
  
• Adding to the Prospective Pool of Qualified Teachers
  
  To help meet the needs of hard-to-staff schools and hard-to-staff subject areas, New York is seeking to tap into its pool of retired police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other public employees to encourage them to enter the teaching profession. This bill, if enacted, would:
  
  
  • Allow public employees with a New York State teaching certificate to work in a high need school for a limited time, as defined by the Commissioner, without a cap on the salary they can earn while receiving their retirement benefits; or
    
    
  • Allow retired public employees with a New York State teaching certificate in a subject shortage area (e.g., mathematics) who have been retired for at least one year to work in a public school without a cap on the salary they can earn while receiving their retirement benefits.
    
    
  Under both options, teachers may provide two years of teaching service, but may be extended for up to five years with the approval of the Commissioner of Education or, in the instance of New York City, the Chancellor of the New York City School District. This bill will have no financial impact on the New York City and New York State Teacher Retirement Systems and would sunset after five years.
  
  
• Fee for Accreditation of Institutions of Higher Education
  
  This proposed legislation would authorize SED to charge fees to offset the costs of voluntary reviews of colleges and universities seeking institutional accreditation by the Board of Regents. Accreditation by the Board of Regents, while similar to that of other federally recognized accrediting bodies, gives New York colleges and universities another, less costly, option to achieve accreditation, as well as a cost-effective alternative for demonstrating to the U.S. Department of Education that the institution meets the quality standards for participating in the federal student financial aid program.
  
  
• Non-Degree Granting Proprietary School Bill Proposal
  
  The purpose of this bill is to ensure that non-degree proprietary institutions comply with current best practices while bearing the increased costs of funding their supervision and the Tuition Reimbursement Account. Additionally, the bill defines a new category of candidate schools. The bill addresses changes in the industry since the last major revision, in 1990, to Education Law governing these institutions.